General steps down as army surgeon general

WASHINGTON - A three-star general at the center of a scandal over the care of wounded soldiers has stepped down as the US Army's surgeon general, the Pentagon said Monday.
Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, the highest ranking officer embroiled in the scandal at Walter Reed Medical Center, requested retirement and was immediately replaced as surgeon general by his deputy, the army said in a statement.
"I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army," the statement quoted Kiley as saying.
Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren asked Kiley to step down at a meeting Sunday, said a senior defense official, who asked not to be identified. "And General Kiley agreed and submitted his paperwork for retirement," he said.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was informed of the decision but did not instigate the request for Kiley's retirement, the official said.
Kiley had come under fire following revelations that wounded soldiers were housed in shabby conditions and left to languish in a bureaucratic quagmire while convalescing at Walter Reed, a showcase military hospital in Washington.
The general oversaw the army's medical services and had served as commander of Walter Reed from 2003 to 2004.
In testimony before outraged lawmakers, Kiley apologized last week for the treatment of wounded soldiers but sought to distance himself from the failures, instead laying blame on subordinates while promising to overhaul the system.
The scandal already has led to the firing of the army secretary, Francis Harvey, and the hospital commander, Major General George Weightman.
It came to light with a series by the Washington Post that told the stories of severely wounded soldiers living in a building with moldy walls, infestations of mice and roaches, and holes in the ceiling.
Other soldiers and family members told how case managers lost track of them once they became outpatients and left them to navigate mountains of paperwork and other bureaucratic requirements to get discharged with disability benefits.
Army leaders initially blamed non-commissioned officers and a junior officer for the problems. Kiley said the reports were "one-sided."
When asked at one hearing why he was not aware of the sub-standard conditions at the decrepit building housing wounded soldiers, Kiley said he did not know.
"It's been pointed out: I live across the street. But I don't do barracks inspections at Walter Reed in my role as MEDCOM commander," Kiley said.
The series has triggered internal investigations by the army, and reviews by an outside panel appointed by Gates and by a bipartisan commission appointed by the White House.
"I want to allow Acting Secretary Geren, General Schoomaker, and the leaders of the Army Medical Command to focus completely on the way ahead and the Army Action Plan to improve all aspects of soldier care," Kiley said in his statement.
"We are an Army Medical Department at war, supporting an Army at war -- it shouldn't be and it isn't about one doctor," he said.
Geren directed that an army advisory board be convened to recommend a slate of candidates to succeed Kiley as surgeon general, the army said.
But in the meantime, Major General Gale Pollock, the service's deputy surgeon general, "immediately assumed the surgeon general's duties," the army said.